July 30

Today at church, the sweetest thing happened. Caleb has had the same teacher in his church class for two years. Mr. Mike is outgoing, gregarious, silly... and Caleb loves him. But today was "Promotion Sunday", and Caleb moved up to the 3rd and 4th grade class, while Daisy moved into Mr. Mike's 1st and 2nd grade class. It was sad, but Mr. Mike had a present for Caleb. It was simply gift wrapped, and he told us not to let him open it until we got home.

At home, Caleb unwrapped his gift...

Mr. Mike is a geologist. He works for a coal company, and travels quite a bit. He knew that Caleb loves rocks, and we had talked a lot with him about various rocks. He assembled a box full of his favorite rocks, all hand-labeled, with a perfect scripture verse as a label.

You guys, I cried.

This man knew Caleb well enough to know that this gift would speak to his heart.

He loved my quirky, literal, awkward kid enough to put something like this together.

Caleb was so excited.

 

This boy was so, so happy, and I was so thankful that someone loved him enough to do this for him. Mr. Mike loves the Lord, and loves my boy. I don't think it gets any better than that.

Except that earlier in the week, this note arrived in our mailbox:

You guys. I died. 

Sometimes it's hard raising a kid like Caleb. I mean, I know he's fabulous. But lots of people don't see past the quirks. But Mr. Mike gets him, and loves him, and serves week after week to show him God's love. And I am so, so, thankful. 

I'm also thankful for the fact that Daisy is now in Mr. Mike's class. They learned about the 23rd Psalm today, and as soon as she got  home she grabbed her Bible, opened it up to Psalm 23, and began reading.

Really.

This is my life.

I am so thankful.

More non-Bible reading.

And then we got all dressed up and headed to the park where Chris and I were married nearly 15 years ago, and had family pictures taken. Those will come later.  For now, you can see this:

That's Lily with our photographer, and Lily is sitting in the crate the photographer brought for her to stand on, since Chris still can't lift more than 15 pounds. Our photographer was great - this is the first time in five and a half years that we have paid for a photographer, and I am confident that her work will be worth every penny.

Daisy and I were searching for daisies during our grocery shopping trip yesterday, but only found chamomile flowers. Then at our last stop, we found daisies, and I was left with a bunch of chamomile. At the last minute I turned them into these precious flower crowns.

This picture, taken on the front porch of my parents' house, will be a little sneak peek of the awesomeness to come. After pictures, we went to their house for ice cream cake to celebrate Chris and Jace's birthdays, and it was so nice! Jace was really funny about my outfit - the skirt is long and flowy and dramatic, and it made him really uncomfortable. He kept staring, but then trying not to. It was too funny!